27. Preparations #3
“This time I want to be ready for wherever the Portal Pill takes me… I mean us,” Fred said. “I’m glad I brought those gold coins last time, because they turned out very useful, but now they’re all in a bank somewhere.”
“Yes… and no…” Bob grinned. “I tend to keep hold of recent arrivals’ gold. The money I gave you was from my own… sources… Here… have it all back!”
Bob reached under the desk, there was a clickety-clickety sound, and he pulled out the very bag of gold Fred had arrived with.
“It’s yours. The money you won gambling is yours too, and I’ll keep it safe, and growing, while you’re gone. That way, whenever, if ever, you come back, you can set up the same life again.”
“What about the apartment?” Fred asked. “Can you keep it for me?”
“I’ll rent it out for you. Who knows if you’ll ever come back?
I hope I get to see you again. I hope I get to know you’re safe, but I know there is no guarantee we will ever meet again.
But I will make it so you are always welcome here.
If I die before your return, I will pass on the memory of you, I promise.
Try not to worry about the life you leave.
We need to set you up for your next life. ”
Fred felt a buzz of excitement mingled with a cold thread of dread. A new life? He’d only just started to settle into this one.
“If Shandy or Cara get left behind, can you look after them? Keep them safe?” he asked, turning his head to hide the tears gathering in his eyes.
“Of course I would try, but they would always be in danger of kidnap or worse if they stayed. Don’t leave either of them behind,” Bob warned him.
“They are both very precious to me, and I would do anything to protect them, but the best thing you could do would be to get them both as far from here as possible. You may have to take Foxy with you too, if she leaps through the portal to relative safety, so we should pack for her too.”
“Pack? Can’t I just take the gold? It worked out this time?”
“Did it though?” Bob raised a dubious eyebrow.
“The second I saw your gold, I knew it was elvish. In fact, I knew you were from the same realm. This time, I’m giving you a better money bag.
It casts a spell on each coin as they’re removed, to hide its true appearance.
It will still show your coins as gold, not notes or silver coins, but at least they will look like the gold from wherever you are!
And I’m going to give you clothes for everyone, my Portal Pill book and anything else I can think of that might help you keep those poor girls alive! ”
“How am I going to carry all that?” Fred asked. “I can hardly walk into battle with a couple of suitcases!”
“You’re going to take this!” Bob declared, pulling a nondescript, black bag out of a drawer.
“This is the Infinity Backpack. If I could patent magical items, this is the one I would have sold to all of the humans. It can hold as much as you like, as long as it fits through the top, and weighs only the materials it is made of, and anything you put in the outer pockets. And come to think of it… arriving with a couple of suitcases might actually be a good idea. Seeing as we lack the element of surprise, we may as well make it look like you’re really planning on going home. ”
Fred and Bob spent the next few hours making sure everything was as ready as possible for the next day. Shandy cooked up a vat of pasta for lunch, with the logic that, depending on what happened, the next day might end up a physical marathon, and carb-loading might be key to survival.
“I’m not sure I agree with your nutritional advice, but this is great pasta!” Chester said, grinning. “And you’ve worked really well on your targeting. I reckon you could knock out a good number of flying dragons, even in the heat of the moment.”
“I put so much magic into those projectiles though!” Shandy sighed. “That won’t affect my magic tomorrow, will it?”
Chester shook his head and smiled. “You’re stronger than that, and when you’re armed with your anger, you’ll be unstoppable!”
Between the four of them, they worked out a plan.
They would turn up exactly as expected, but wheeling suitcases they would claim were for Shandy and Cara.
Fred would claim to be ready to make a deal: he would return home willingly, as long as he could bring both Shandy and Cara with him.
If his father seemed to accept the deal, he would go along with the pretence of leaving, until he got Shandy and Cara together for long enough to whisk them away via a portal.
If the deal was refused, Chester and Bob would create some kind of diversion, while Fred snuck away with the girls through the portal.
It all seemed unsatisfactorily bloodless to Fred.
The punches he had thrown and the spells he had cast, the anger he had released and the results he had achieved, left an energy running through his body that called out for more action.
Deep down, he wanted the sensible plan to fail so that he could act on every urge surging through him.
Why could he feel himself becoming more powerful if he was never going to be able to use that power?